NYT – “Since the beginning of the economic downturn, librarians across the country have speculated that fines for overdue items are keeping people from using the library — particularly large families whose children take out (and forget to return) many books at a time. Some libraries learned that the fines, which are often as low as 25 cents an item per day, quickly multiplied for many people and were becoming an added hardship.”

One Response to “New and Creative Leniency for Overdue Library Books”

And? For those who have a legit. problem with the amount of late fees, we make a one time adjustment, usually to 1/2. Chronic abusers can keep paying, as keeping books late does not allow others to have the pleasure of reading them.

Now we even send people an e-mail with a 3 day notice of upcoming due dates…..

Many people seriously just do not want to pay a fine of any type (not even for damaged or lost items), and for those people…well, don’t pay, I’m not going to stop you from using the library, but the computer will stop you from checking out.

Now we have a collection agency for customers that owe $50 or more (going back to early 200_)….it seems to be working, but even some of those people we give a break to.